Kansas State University Athletics
Friday, March 8
Manhattan, Kan.
6 p.m.
Kansas State University
5-7
0
vs
5
Old Dominion
10-2
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4
5
6
7
8
9
R
H
E
Old Dominion
0
0
2
0
0
0
0
2
1
5
7
0
K-State
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
3
1
ODU Spoils Cats' Home Opener
Mar 08, 2019 | Baseball
MANHATTAN, Kan. – Old Dominion's Nick Pantos and Hunter Gregory combined for a three-hit shutout of K-State in the Wildcats' home opener Friday night at Tointon Family Stadium, 5-0.
Pantos lasted 8 1/3 innings before Gregory took over to record the final two outs against the only two hitters he faced. ODU's duo combined for three strikeouts and three walks, handing K-State (5-7) its first shutout defeat of the season and extending the Monarchs' (10-2) winning streak to nine games.
"Kid pitched a good game," said head coach Pete Hughes of Pantos' outing. "The conditions slanted towards pitching, but he threw enough strikes and didn't create free opportunities for us. He had good stuff and we couldn't figure out how to handle his sinker, a lot of ground balls."
The Wildcat offense got two hits by leadoff hitter Thomas Hughes and another by sophomore Jordan Maxson – all singles. Pantos and Gregory held the Cats hitless after the sixth inning.
Old Dominion held a two-run lead in the eighth inning when first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino belted a two-run home run off K-State starter Tyler Eckberg. Eckberg suffered the loss after going 7 2/3 innings and allowing four runs (three earned) on six hits to go with four strikeouts and no walks.
Eckberg retired the first six hitters he faced until ODU broke through with a pair of runs on three hits in the third inning. Kyle Battle delivered a two-run single after Will Morgan and Tommy Bell began the inning with back-to-back singles.
Eckberg proceeded to sit down the next eight Monarchs, as he retired ODU in order in four of his first five innings. The junior righty surrendered four runs (three earned) on six hits with four strikeouts and no walks in taking the loss.
"I thought Tyler pitched very good tonight, he had good stuff," Hughes added. "But (hitters) two through seven didn't get a hit, makes for a long night … If you don't get more than three hits, you're not going to beat anybody. But I think we are more capable of creating offense against a quality pitcher like that.
"They got the big hit tonight, and we didn't."
Pasquantino's homer doubled the Monarchs' lead in the eighth inning, marking the only extra-base hit by either team on the night. It was Pasquantino's second homer of the season and Eckberg's second home run allowed on the year.
ODU tacked on a single run in the top of the ninth via an RBI single by Bell off reliever Brogan Heinen. Heinen, a senior, tossed the final 1 1/3 for the Cats, yielding one hit while striking out one.
The Cats went 0-for-8 with runners on base while going 0-for-3 with runners in scoring position. Eckberg and Heinen limited ODU to 2-for-10 with runners in scoring position.
Battle and Bell each went 2-for-4 with a run scored for the Monarchs.
K-State continues its home-opening series against ODU Saturday at 2 p.m. The game will stream live on K-StateHD.TV along with the K-State Sports Roku app and Apple TV.
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
Pantos lasted 8 1/3 innings before Gregory took over to record the final two outs against the only two hitters he faced. ODU's duo combined for three strikeouts and three walks, handing K-State (5-7) its first shutout defeat of the season and extending the Monarchs' (10-2) winning streak to nine games.
"Kid pitched a good game," said head coach Pete Hughes of Pantos' outing. "The conditions slanted towards pitching, but he threw enough strikes and didn't create free opportunities for us. He had good stuff and we couldn't figure out how to handle his sinker, a lot of ground balls."
The Wildcat offense got two hits by leadoff hitter Thomas Hughes and another by sophomore Jordan Maxson – all singles. Pantos and Gregory held the Cats hitless after the sixth inning.
Old Dominion held a two-run lead in the eighth inning when first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino belted a two-run home run off K-State starter Tyler Eckberg. Eckberg suffered the loss after going 7 2/3 innings and allowing four runs (three earned) on six hits to go with four strikeouts and no walks.
Eckberg retired the first six hitters he faced until ODU broke through with a pair of runs on three hits in the third inning. Kyle Battle delivered a two-run single after Will Morgan and Tommy Bell began the inning with back-to-back singles.
Eckberg proceeded to sit down the next eight Monarchs, as he retired ODU in order in four of his first five innings. The junior righty surrendered four runs (three earned) on six hits with four strikeouts and no walks in taking the loss.
"I thought Tyler pitched very good tonight, he had good stuff," Hughes added. "But (hitters) two through seven didn't get a hit, makes for a long night … If you don't get more than three hits, you're not going to beat anybody. But I think we are more capable of creating offense against a quality pitcher like that.
"They got the big hit tonight, and we didn't."
Pasquantino's homer doubled the Monarchs' lead in the eighth inning, marking the only extra-base hit by either team on the night. It was Pasquantino's second homer of the season and Eckberg's second home run allowed on the year.
ODU tacked on a single run in the top of the ninth via an RBI single by Bell off reliever Brogan Heinen. Heinen, a senior, tossed the final 1 1/3 for the Cats, yielding one hit while striking out one.
The Cats went 0-for-8 with runners on base while going 0-for-3 with runners in scoring position. Eckberg and Heinen limited ODU to 2-for-10 with runners in scoring position.
Battle and Bell each went 2-for-4 with a run scored for the Monarchs.
K-State continues its home-opening series against ODU Saturday at 2 p.m. The game will stream live on K-StateHD.TV along with the K-State Sports Roku app and Apple TV.
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
- K-State scored no runs on three hits and committed one error with four left on base.
- Old Dominion scored five runs on seven hits without an error and left five runners on base.
- Hughes had the only multi-hit game for the Cats, going 2-for-3 with a walk.
- Maxson accounted for K-State's third hit, as the Wildcats had three singles in the game.
- K-State's number two through seven hitters did not register a base hit.
- ODU turned two double plays in the game.
- The all-time series between K-State and Old Dominion is now tied, 2-2.
- K-State dropped its first home opener since 2012, snapping a streak of six consecutive home-opening wins.
- The Wildcats had won nine of their last 10 home openers entering Friday.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Nick Pantos (3-0)
L: Eckberg, Tyler (0-3)
Batting:
HR: Vinnie Pasquantino 1
RBI: Kyle Battle 2 ; Vinnie Pasquantino 2 ; Tommy Bell 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Kyle Battle 1 ; Vinnie Pasquantino 1 ; Will Morgan 1 ; Ryan Teschko 1 ; Tommy Bell 1
SB: Kyle Battle 1
CS: Cory Alexander II 1
HBP: Ryan Teschko 1 ; Bryce Windham 1
Game Leaders
AB
3
R
0
H
2
RBI
0
AB
3
R
0
H
1
RBI
0
AB
3
R
0
H
0
RBI
0
AB
4
R
0
H
0
RBI
0
Players Mentioned
RHP
/ Baseball
RHP
/ BaseballINF
/ BaseballC
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